Residential and commercial development in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City is pictured in July 2024. A new study found Utah median household incomes increased at a higher rate than any other state over the past 50 years. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

Household incomes have grown in nearly every state over the past 50 years, but a new study concludes that growth has been uneven across the country.

An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, released Tuesday from the Urban Institute’s Center for Local Finance and Growth, found inflation-adjusted incomes in Western, mid-Atlantic and New England states have grown the most since 1970, while incomes in Midwestern states have grown the least.

Between 1970 and 2023, Utah household incomes increased at a higher rate than any other state: The median income went up 78%, an increase of $40,820 in inflation-adjusted dollars to $93,421. Utah was followed by Colorado, New Hampshire, California, Arizona and Virginia, all of which saw more than 60% growth in median household incomes adjusted for inflation.

Nationally, median household incomes grew by an average of 32%.

The study found only one state saw inflation-adjusted incomes drop over the past five decades: West Virginia’s median household income fell by 0.4%, from $56,161 to $55,948 in inflation-adjusted dollars.

West Virginia had the second-lowest household income in the study, ranking ahead of only Mississippi’s $54,203. Massachusetts ranked the highest, with a median household income of $99,858.

The Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found that rates of state sales and income taxes had no association with changes in median household income. The analysis also found states with colder temperatures and higher property taxes saw greater median income growth, despite popular notions that lower property taxes and warm temperatures can lead to more prosperity.

The factors most strongly associated with household income growth were educational attainment and increases in the percentage of immigrants in the state population, the study concluded.

“This could be because immigration leads to economic growth, immigrants seek out growing areas, or both,” the study said.

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem paints a section of the border barrier in New Mexico in August to prevent rust and make it hotter to prevent climbing. Declines in immigration contributed to a low population gain in the United States last year. (Photo by Danielle Prokop/Source NM)

A drop in immigration amid President Donald Trump’s enforcement crackdown led to historically slow population growth in the United States last year.

Activity at the southern border is at a historic low. The population change reflects the last months of the Biden administration, when immigration controls began to tighten, and the first months of the Trump administration’s massive anti-immigration and deportation agenda.

Five states lost population, according to the new Census Bureau estimates released Jan. 27 covering changes between mid-2024 and mid-2025. The changes suggest Texas and Florida could gain congressional seats at the expense of California, Illinois and New York.

States that did gain population were concentrated in the South, where numbers appear to give Republican states in the region a political edge halfway through the decade. 

An analysis by Jonathan Cervas at Carnegie Mellon University predicted four more seats in Congress after the 2030 census for Texas and Florida, with losses of four seats in California and two each in New York and Illinois. Cervas is an assistant teaching professor who researches representation and redistricting. 

“We are still a long way off from 2030, so there is a lot of uncertainty in these projections,” Cervas said, adding that California’s loss in the next decade could be only two or three seats.

Another expert, redistricting consultant Kimball Brace of Virginia, said he was suspicious of the sudden drop in California’s population. Earlier projections had the state losing only one seat after 2030, he said. 

“This acceleration in California’s population loss is not something that was in the projections at all,” Brace said. “I’ve got to be a little bit skeptical in terms of the numbers. It shows a significant difference in what we’ve seen in the early part of the decade.”

Brace was still working on his own analysis. William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution, said net immigration was about 1.3 million nationally for the year, down by more than half from the year before.

“As a result most states showed slower growth or greater declines,” Frey said. California had about 200,000 fewer immigrants than the previous year, similar to Texas and New York, though those two states eked out populations gains anyway because of people moving in and births 

Texas and North Carolina gained the most people between mid-2024 and mid-2025, while California and Hawaii lost the most. 

Nationally, the population increased only about 1.7 million, or half a percentage point, to about 341.8 million. It was the lowest increase of the decade and the smallest gain since the pandemic sharply cut growth in 2020 and 2021. Growth was just 1.4 million between mid-2019 and mid-2020, and only about 500,000 between mid-2020 and mid-2021. Before that, national population growth was below 2 million only twice since 1975. 

Among the states, Texas gained about 391,000 in population, up 1.2%, followed in the top 5 by Florida (197,000, or .8%, North Carolina (146,000, or 1.3%), Georgia (99,000, or .9%) and South Carolina (80,000, or 1.5%).

California went from one of the largest increases the previous year to the greatest population loss, about 9,500, less than .1%,  followed by Hawaii (down 2,000, or .1%), Vermont (down 1,900 or 0.3%), New Mexico (down  1,300, or 0.1%) and West Virginia (down 1,300 or .1%). 

Vermont had the largest percentage decrease and South Carolina had the largest increase. 

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

Hundreds gather around a growing memorial site at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue South in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026 earlier in the day. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing mounting criticism, including from some congressional Republicans and moderate Democrats, for her response to a second killing by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.

President Donald Trump reiterated his confidence in Noem Tuesday, but several Republican senators, a group that overwhelmingly voted last year for Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, are pushing for an independent investigation into the Saturday killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents and calling for her to testify before Congress.

And Democrats who are generally not among their party’s most aggressive members in opposing the Trump administration have joined a call to impeach Noem and restrict her department’s funding.

Trump told reporters, though, that the former South Dakota governor had done a good job, especially on controlling border crossings.

“No,” he said, when asked if she would step down, according to White House pool reports. 

He made a similar statement to Fox News’ Will Cain during an afternoon appearance in Iowa. 

“She was there with the border,” he told Cain. “Who closed up the border? She did.” 

GOP calls for investigation

The calls for an independent investigation signaled something of a loss of confidence in Noem from some Republicans in the wake of missteps following Pretti’s killing. No Republican senators voted against her confirmation last year.

Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, criticized Noem Tuesday for not placing the agents involved in shooting Pretti on administrative leave.

“That should happen immediately,” Paul wrote on social media Tuesday, adding that “for calm to be restored” an independent investigation needs to happen.

Within hours of Saturday’s shooting Noem labeled Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, as a “domestic terrorist” who intended “to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement.”

Noem used similar terminology after federal immigration officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good on Jan. 7. 

Both Good and Pretti’s shootings were widely caught on camera, contradicting claims by Noem that both posed a threat.

Multiple videos show that Good was driving away when Ross fired three shots into her windshield. 

Video analysis by the New York Times shows Pretti wrestled to the ground by multiple agents and, while pinned down, two officers fired 10 shots. The analysis also showed that an officer took away a handgun from Pretti, which he had a permit for, while he was pinned down.

The contradictions hurt Noem’s standing with some Republicans.

“I can’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately describing the victim as a “domestic terrorist” or a “would-be assassin,’” Paul said, taking aim at Noem as well as White House senior advisor Stephen Miller, who called Pretti a “would-be assassin.”

Hearings

Noem also said that because Pretti had a handgun, he inherently posed a danger to DHS agents, a claim that has divided Republicans.

Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho took issue with Noem’s criticism of Pretti’s possession of a gun. 

“His family, law-abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment right and the trust of the American people deserve a fair process,” he said on social media Monday.

Sen. John Curtis, Republican of Utah, criticized Noem for her handling of Saturday’s shooting.

“Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission,” he wrote on social media Monday. “I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence.”

He also called for an independent investigation. 

Paul on Monday called for several leaders of agencies within Homeland Security to testify before his committee – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Those same agency leaders are scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Feb. 10.

Dems ramp up impeachment talk

Democrats are calling for Noem’s removal, along with pushing for changes to the Homeland Security funding bill, increasing the chances of a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday. 

In the House, 162 Democrats had co-sponsored articles of impeachment against Noem by Tuesday afternoon, a number that climbed throughout the day. The articles were first introduced shortly after Good’s death.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other House Democratic leaders issued a joint statement Monday calling for Noem to be fired. If she’s not, Democrats would move forward with impeachment, the leaders said. The effort is unlikely to move in the House-controlled GOP.

“Dramatic changes at the Department of Homeland Security are needed,” Jeffries said. “Federal agents who have broken the law must be criminally prosecuted. The paramilitary tactics must cease and desist.”

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called for Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio to begin impeachment proceedings into Noem, noting that masked agents of her department “brutally killed two American citizens.” 

“Far from condemning these unlawful and savage killings in cold blood, Secretary Noem immediately labeled Renée and Alex ‘domestic terrorists,’ blatantly lied about the circumstances of the shootings that took their lives, and attempted to cover-up and blockade any legitimate investigation into their deaths,” Raskin said.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a moderate Democrat who voted to confirm Noem, made a direct appeal to Trump to fire her.

“Americans have died,” Fetterman said in a statement. “She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy.”

Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, another moderate Democrat, also called for Noem to be impeached.

Trump pivots

Facing mounting pressure, Trump has softened his tone with state and local officials and walked back his administration’s aggressive immigration operations in Minnesota that Noem has overseen.  

Trump directed border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take over ICE operations, effectively sidelining Noem, who in December deployed 3,000 federal immigration officers to the state after right-wing media influencers resurfaced reports of fraud in the state’s social service programs. 

By Monday evening, top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino was removed from his position as at-large commander and sent back to California, according to multiple media reports. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision to send Homan to Minnesota, arguing that Noem is occupied with managing FEMA operations as a winter storm covers much of the country. 

Funding bill

In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, Senate Democrats quickly opposed the Homeland Security spending bill the chamber was set to pass this week. 

Instead, Democrats argued the measure must be stripped from the government funding package of six bills and renegotiated to include more constraints on federal immigration enforcement.

The funding package passed the House this month, but a majority of Democrats opposed any funding for ICE, which would maintain a flat funding level of $10 billion. 

Even if there is a partial government shutdown, DHS still has up to $190 billion it can spend from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the president’s signature tax and spending cuts package signed into law last summer.   

Rep. Elijah Behnke (R-Town of Chase) said that the Trump accounts are “designed to help families build long-term financial security” and allow children to “grow alongside the American economy.” (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Assembly Republicans proposed Tuesday that Wisconsin match federal policy by putting $1,000 of state funds into savings accounts for newborn babies in Wisconsin during President Donald Trump’s term. 

The federal tax and spending bill signed into law by Trump in July 2025 included a provision that will allow for parents in the U.S. to create “Trump accounts,” which would be an IRA account, for their children. Under the provision, the federal government will provide $1,000 into the account for babies born between Jan. 1, 2025 through the end of 2028 and who are U.S. citizens with a valid Social Security number.

Rep. Elijah Behnke (R-Town of Chase) said that the accounts are “designed to help families build long-term financial security” and allow children to “grow alongside the American economy.” The money in the accounts will be invested in low-cost index funds tied to the U.S stock market, and the accounts will be managed by a private company.

Behnke said “starting early makes a powerful difference” for children who will have the funds set aside, which could be used for down payment on a house, higher education or starting a business in the future. 

“We’re concerned that they’ll never be able to buy a home. Maybe this gives them a chance down the road,” Behnke said. 

The bill will provide a state match of $1,000 to the accounts for babies born in Wisconsin.

Parents must opt in and open the accounts for the funds to be set aside and then invested. Children, parents, family members, friends and employers will also be able to contribute up to $5,000 per year per child to the account with funds unable to be accessed until recipients turn 18. 

The investment account plan is not the only Trump administration policy that Wisconsin Republicans have sought to replicate at the state level this session. Others include exempting tips and overtime pay from the state income tax.

Behnke said lawmakers would tap the state’s budget surplus for the initiative. According to the bill draft, the state would set aside $60 million in annual funding for the 2025-27 budget cycle for this purpose. 

“We have a surplus, thankfully, and it’s over a $1 billion, and obviously we’re discussing some property tax relief, but 60,000 kids [are] estimated to be born in Wisconsin each year, so that would be about $60 million put into account for the next couple years,” Behnke said. 

Recent projections from the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimate that the state’s budget surplus at the end of June 2027 will be $2.37 billion, which is about $1.5 billion above the projected balance when the current state budget was enacted last year. Evers has called for lawmakers to use over $1 billion from the surplus to address rising property taxes throughout the state. Republican lawmakers have signaled some willingness to work on the issue, including Behnke who said that “we’d all be taxed out of our homes if we don’t do something to fix it.” 

Behnke said he did not know where the state Senate and Gov. Tony Evers stand on his proposal. Their support will be necessary for the policy to become a reality. 

“I’ve asked one elected Democrat and he said he would get back to me,” Behnke said. “[Evers has] been very focused on kids’ education, and since we can use this fund for higher education, I mean, I think some of it would be attractive for him to sign.” 

Behnke is also the lead Assembly author on a bipartisan bill that would give children born or adopted in Wisconsin $25 in a state-managed 529 account to help kickstart their educational savings. The bill has bipartisan support and recently received a public hearing in the state Senate last week.

Democratic lawmaker urges caution

One of the Democratic coauthors on that bill, Rep. Alex Joers (D-Waunakee), told the Wisconsin Examiner he recommends caution in pursuing a state match to the “Trump accounts.” He said he thought the effort was a “flashy” one meant to “grab headlines.” 

“It’s a little bit risky to be putting our state funds towards a federal program that isn’t technically set up yet,” Joers said. “We’re basically having to make a dedicated state funding decision based on a federal program that hasn’t begun yet, so that’s to me a little bit fiscally concerning.”

The Trump administration has said that the accounts are supposed to become available on July 4, 2026.

Joers noted that the state has to “balance its ledger,” unlike the federal government, and Wisconsin policymakers are discussing using the budget surplus for property tax relief, boosting aid to schools, funding for child care and other priorities. 

Joers said the “WisKids” bill is designed to be sustainable year after year, meanwhile the “Trump accounts” bill would expire after 2028.

Wisconsin has had a 529 account program for the last 25 years that is primarily managed through Edvest. According to the bill coauthors, there are over 400,000 accounts and assets totaling $8.6 billion under management. 

Parents would need to claim the $25 before their child turns 10, under the legislation. The funds in the account could be used for college, technical education, credential programs or apprenticeships. Withdrawals from a 529 account are tax-free for qualified expenses including tuition, room and board.

“The reality is that most Wisconsin families still aren’t saving early for their child’s education, and many aren’t saving at all,” Behnke said in written testimony about the proposal. “WisKids is designed to change that… We know this approach works. Oklahoma saw a dramatic increase in family-owned 529 accounts after launching a similar program. A small investment at birth encouraged parents to keep saving and gave them a different way of thinking about their child’s future.”

Joers said that calculations show the $25 would potentially grow to be about $100, but the purpose of the bill is to act as a “tap on the shoulder” for parents and guardians to get them interested in starting an Edvest account.

The “WisKids” bill would not need additional state general purpose revenue, but would instead tap into existing funds held by the state Department of Financial Institutions (DFI).

According to a fiscal estimate by the agency, the legislation would use an existing college savings program trust fund, which is funded by administrative fees established by the college savings program board and imposed on college savings program accounts. The state stopped collecting fees on 529 accounts in 2005, but the funds have remained growing in the account and are ready to be used, Joers said.

Under the legislation, the minimum balance of the trust fund that must be maintained to meet the reasonably anticipated needs of the college savings program would have to be calculated and if the trust fund balance falls below that amount, the DFI would stop making deposits until the trust fund balance is sufficient.

“It’s in line with what their program was established for, but they can’t just do that. They need legislation to be able to do that,” Joers said. 

Joers noted that Edvest accounts can be rolled over into a retirement account should the funds not be used for educational purposes.

Promoting the Trump accounts proposal, Behnke said that parents could supplement the account in a way that would be “life-changing.”

“Just with mom and dad, skipping one quick meal, or one small luxury a month — lets their kids become a millionaire,” Behnke said.

“That’s a bipartisan consensus that we want our kids born in Wisconsin to be best set up for the future,” Joers said. But, he cautioned, it’s important to do it in a way that’s “sustainable, and not just going along with the headlines of the day.”

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Wisconsin health officials have confirmed the first measles case in the state in 2026. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

Wisconsin’s first case of measles in 2026 was confirmed this week in a Waukesha resident, state health officials have reported.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) reported that the individual’s illness was “related to international travel.” Citing privacy concerns, the department withheld all other information, including demographic information about the patient and whether or not the individual was vaccinated.

DHS and the Waukesha County Health and Human Services department are working to identify and notify people who might have been exposed to the individual. DHS reported that no public places where others might have been exposed have been identified.

The illness was the first confirmed case of measles in Wisconsin for 2026, according to DHS, and was confirmed by the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene. 

The department is urging state residents to get a measles vaccination if they haven’t done so already.

A report in mid-December from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found there had been 1,958 confirmed cases of measles in 43 states last year through Dec. 16, and a sharp increase in December raised concerns for holiday travelers, Stateline reported.

State health officials are urging Wisconsin residents to check their vaccination status “to make sure they are protected from measles.” The department is advising people with winter vacation plans to check measles activity in the places they plan to visit and confirm that they and any traveling companions are up to date on needed vaccines.

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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem at a roundtable discussion with local ranchers and employees from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Jan. 7, 2026 in Brownsville, Texas. (Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A growing number of U.S. House Democrats are pushing for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s impeachment after another fatal shooting of an American citizen by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis this month.  

At least 164 members — more than three-fourths of all House Democrats, who total 213 — backed an impeachment resolution against Noem as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the office of Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly, who authored the measure. 

“Kristi Noem should be fired immediately, or we will commence impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a statement Tuesday.

Kelly’s three articles of impeachment against Noem accuse the secretary of obstruction of Congress, violation of public trust and self-dealing. The resolution came after the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by a federal agent in Minneapolis.  

Democratic calls for Noem’s impeachment grew even louder after federal agents fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis Jan. 24. 

President Donald Trump’s administration has taken heat for its immigration enforcement tactics and appeared to dial down its rhetoric following the shooting. 

Republicans control the U.S. House with a narrow 218-member majority.

In a statement shared with States Newsroom on Tuesday, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the department, said, “DHS enforces the laws Congress passes, period,” adding that “if certain members don’t like those laws, changing them is literally their job.” 

“While (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers are facing a staggering 1,300% spike in assaults, too many politicians would rather defend criminals and attack the men and women who are enforcing our laws and did nothing while Joe Biden facilitated an invasion of tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country,” McLaughlin said. “It’s time they focus on protecting the American people, the work this Department is doing every day under Secretary Noem’s leadership.”

Here’s a list of the Democratic co-sponsors, as of Tuesday afternoon, per Kelly’s office: 

Alabama

• Rep. Terri Sewell
• Rep. Shomari Figures

Arizona

• Rep. Yassamin Ansari
• Rep. Adelita Grijalva

California

• Rep. Nanette Barragán
• Rep. Julia Brownley
• Rep. Salud Carbajal
• Rep. Judy Chu
• Rep. Lou Correa
• Rep. Mark DeSaulnier
• Rep. Laura Friedman
• Rep. John Garamendi
• Rep. Jimmy Gomez
• Rep. Jared Huffman
• Rep. Sara Jacobs
• Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove
• Rep. Doris Matsui
• Rep. Dave Min
• Rep. Kevin Mullin
• Rep. Luz Rivas
• Rep. Linda Sánchez
• Rep. Brad Sherman
• Rep. Lateefah Simon
• Rep. Eric Swalwell
• Rep. Mark Takano
• Rep. Mike Thompson
• Rep. Norma Torres
• Rep. Juan Vargas
• Rep. Maxine Waters
• Rep. Sam Liccardo
• Rep. Scott Peters
• Rep. Raul Ruiz
• Rep. Rob Garcia
• Rep. Mike Levin
• Rep. Gil Cisneros
• Rep. Zoe Lofgren
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi

Colorado

• Rep. Diana DeGette
• Rep. Brittany Pettersen
• Rep. Joe Neguse
• Rep. Jason Crow

Connecticut

• Rep. John Larson
• Rep. Joe Courtney
• Rep. Jahana Hayes
• Rep. Rosa DeLauro

Delaware

• Rep. Sarah McBride

District of Columbia 

• Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton* 

Florida

• Rep. Lois Frankel
• Rep. Maxwell Frost
• Rep. Darren Soto
• Rep. Kathy Castor
• Rep. Frederica Wilson
• Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Georgia

• Rep. Nikema Williams
• Rep. Hank Johnson

Hawaii

• Rep. Jill Tokuda

Illinois

• Rep. Nikki Budzinski
• Rep. Sean Casten
• Rep. Danny Davis
• Rep. Chuy García
• Rep. Jonathan Jackson
• Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi
• Rep. Mike Quigley
• Rep. Jan Schakowsky
• Rep. Eric Sorensen
• Rep. Bill Foster

Indiana

• Rep. André Carson
• Rep. Frank Mrvan

Kentucky

• Rep. Morgan McGarvey

Louisiana 

• Rep. Troy Carter

Maine

• Rep. Chellie Pingree

Maryland

• Rep. Sarah Elfreth
• Rep. April McClain Delaney
• Rep. Kweisi Mfume
• Rep. Johnny Olszewski
• Rep. Steny Hoyer

Massachusetts

• Rep. Bill Keating
• Rep. Stephen Lynch
• Rep. Jim McGovern
• Rep. Seth Moulton
• Rep. Lori Trahan
• Rep. Jake Auchincloss
• Rep. Ayanna Pressley
• Rep. Richard Neal

Michigan

• Rep. Haley Stevens
• Rep. Shri Thanedar
• Rep. Rashida Tlaib
• Rep. Debbie Dingell

Minnesota

• Rep. Angie Craig
• Rep. Betty McCollum
• Rep. Kelly Morrison
• Rep. Ilhan Omar

Mississippi

• Rep. Bennie Thompson

Missouri

• Rep. Wesley Bell

Nevada

• Rep. Dina Titus
• Rep. Steven Horsford
• Rep. Susie Lee

New Hampshire 

• Rep. Chris Pappas

New Jersey

• Rep. LaMonica McIver
• Rep. Rob Menendez
• Rep. Donald Norcross
• Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman

New Mexico

• Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández
• Rep. Melanie Stansbury
• Rep. Gabe Vasquez

New York

• Rep. Yvette Clarke
• Rep. Adriano Espaillat
• Rep. Dan Goldman
• Rep. Tim Kennedy
• Rep. Jerry Nadler
• Rep. Paul Tonko
• Rep. Ritchie Torres
• Rep. Nydia Velázquez
• Rep. Laura Gillen
• Rep. Gregory Meeks
• Rep. Grace Meng
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
• Rep. George Latimer
• Rep. Pat Ryan
• Rep. John Mannion

North Carolina

• Rep. Alma Adams
• Rep. Valerie Foushee
• Rep. Deborah Ross

Ohio

• Rep. Joyce Beatty
• Rep. Shontel Brown
• Rep. Greg Landsman

Oregon

• Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
• Rep. Maxine Dexter
• Rep. Val Hoyle
• Rep. Andrea Salinas
• Rep. Janelle Bynum

Pennsylvania

• Rep. Brendan Boyle
• Rep. Madeleine Dean
• Rep. Chris Deluzio
• Rep. Dwight Evans
• Rep. Summer Lee
• Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon
• Rep. Chrissy Houlahan

Rhode Island

• Rep. Gabe Amo

Tennessee

• Rep. Steve Cohen

Texas

• Rep. Greg Casar
• Rep. Joaquin Castro
• Rep. Jasmine Crockett
• Rep. Lloyd Doggett
• Rep. Veronica Escobar
• Rep. Sylvia Garcia
• Rep. Al Green
• Rep. Julie Johnson
• Rep. Lizzie Fletcher
• Rep. Vicente Gonzalez

Vermont

• Rep. Becca Balint

Virginia

• Rep. Suhas Subramanyam
• Rep. James Walkinshaw
• Rep. Bobby Scott
• Rep. Don Beyer
• Rep. Eugene Vindman
• Rep. Jennifer McClellan

Washington

• Rep. Pramila Jayapal
• Rep. Emily Randall
• Rep. Adam Smith
• Rep. Marilyn Strickland
• Rep. Suzan DelBene

Wisconsin

• Rep. Gwen Moore
• Rep. Mark Pocan

*Norton is the non-voting delegate who represents Washington, D.C., in Congress. 

An Avelo Airlines jet that has been painted all white and is used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Air Operations at Mesa Gateway Airport for deportation and detainee transfers. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror

Two gay Iranian men who came to the United States seeking asylum and who were set to be deported on Sunday to Iran, where homosexuality has been punished by death, had their deportations delayed. 

While the two men were not deported on Sunday, an unknown number of other Iranians were, as immigration watchdogs and journalists noted that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chartered aircraft that departed from Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport made its way to the country.  

Rebekah Wolf, an attorney for the American Immigration Council, which is representing the two men, confirmed to the Arizona Mirror that one of the men was able to obtain a temporary stay of removal from late Friday from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Wolf declined to publicly identify her clients out of fear for their safety, but the Mirror has reviewed court documents and detention records that confirm key details of their story. 

The other man, who is medically fragile, had his deportation delayed because he is under a medical quarantine due to a measles outbreak at the ICE Florence Detention Facility he is currently detained at, Wolf said. ICE, the Arizona Department of Health Services and the Pinal County Health Department all refused to comment on the outbreak. 

Wolf’s clients, who have no criminal convictions and who both came to the United States in 2025 on asylum claims, were arrested by the Iranian “morality police” for being gay years ago. That spurred them to flee the country. 

Homosexuality is a crime in Iran and the country has executed men for it as recently as 2022. 

“Our position has been that, if we can get a court, any court, any judge to fully consider all of the evidence in the case, that a grant of asylum is obvious,” Wolf said. “These are very straightforward cases.”

Wolf’s clients were denied asylum in spring 2025 and have been working on appealing that denial, but were not granted stays of removal. She said that when her clients initially went before the court, they did not have legal representation, leading to the court and judge not seeing all the evidence for their case. 

“The reason that we are in this position is because these clients, while they have very straightforward asylum claims, did not have representation,” Wolf said.

While the temporary stay will help her one client, it does not halt deportation for the entirety of the appeal process. 

Between 3,000 and 4,500 Iranians were recently killed when their government brutally cracked down on protesters. The unrest led to the Federal Aviation Administration issuing a no-fly zone over the region as tensions between Iran and the United States escalated. 

ICE did not respond to a request for comment about what agreement it had made to allow its deportation aircraft to fly into Iran and what agreement it may have come to with the country allowing it to conduct the deportation. 

Wolf also said that she has been in communication with members of Congress who have taken interest in the case, which has led to some interesting revelations. 

“Up until Sunday morning, the last we had heard was that there was not going to be a flight on Sunday,” Wolf said, of information she and members of Congress had been told. “The lack of communication or transparency between DHS and Congress is pretty telling about the sort of state of things.” 

U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a Phoenix Democrat, has been outspoken about the deportations to Iran, asking the ICE and DHS to clarify what arrangements the United States has made to conduct the deportations back to Iran. 

The Mesa Gateway Airport that the two men are scheduled to fly out of plays a crucial role in ICE’s ramping up of aerial deportation efforts. It hosts the agency’s headquarters for its “ICE Air” operations, which uses subcontractors and subleases to disguise deportation aircraft.

The airport has also been part of the administration’s efforts to send immigrants to African nations like Ghana, often when those aboard are not even from the continent. 

The airport is also home to a lesser-known detention facility. 

The Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, or AROCC for short, is a 25,000-square-foot facility at the airport. It opened in 2010 to little fanfare and can house up to 157 detainees and 79 employees from ICE, according to an ICE press release from 2010.

Federal agents block in and stop a woman to ask her about another person’s whereabouts on Jan. 19, 2026, in south Minneapolis. Cellphone video taken by bystanders has contradicted the Trump administration’s account of some recent immigration enforcement incidents. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

PORTLAND, Ore. — Keith Ellison held up his cellphone. The Minnesota attorney general was onstage in an Oregon theater in front of hundreds of people, accompanied by four of his Democratic peers from other states, to mark a year of coordinated legal strategy to resist the Trump administration’s expansive use of executive power.

“Can I just note, real quickly, that we need everybody to use these things?” Ellison said to the audience, which earlier had greeted the out-of-state attorney general with a standing ovation. “They have been remarkably helpful.”

Ellison and his fellow Democratic attorneys general were sitting onstage last week at Revolution Hall, a music venue most evenings. Over the past year, AGs have emerged as unlikely rock stars of legal resistance to President Donald Trump, who has made broad use of presidential authority on immigration enforcement and a wide range of other issues, unchecked by the majority-Republican Congress.

Cellphone video has emerged as a powerful rebuttal to Trump’s version of events, at a time when the federal government has restricted state and local investigators from accessing potential evidence to pursue their own investigations into excessive force and fatal shootings by immigration agents in their jurisdictions.

On Saturday, witnesses with cellphone cameras recorded federal agents in Minneapolis shooting and killing Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who, like many in the city, was recording how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents interact with the public during enforcement activity. The video evidence of Pretti’s killing was captured by coordinated but loosely organized bands of ordinary citizens using their cellphones.

The images, shared widely on social media, directly contradict official accounts, including claims by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who accused Pretti of attacking agents. Bystander video shows Pretti filming with his cellphone before multiple agents tackled him to the ground, beat him, and then shot him to death after taking his gun. Pretti, who was licensed to carry a gun in public in Minnesota, never drew his weapon.

Two weeks earlier in Minneapolis, cellphone cameras captured from multiple angles the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an immigration agent. A week after that in nearby St. Paul, Minnesota, cellphone video showed armed immigration agents forcing ChongLy Scott Thao, a middle-aged naturalized U.S. citizen, from his home and into subfreezing temperatures while he was wearing only underwear and sandals.

There are “a whole lot more stories,” Ellison said, many caught on mobile phones or dashboard cameras, and all demonstrating the forceful tactics being used by some of the more than 3,000 federal immigration agents in his state. One image Ellison didn’t mention: the photo of a 5-year-old from Ecuador in federal custody, wearing a blue bunny hat and his Spider-Man backpack.

In Minnesota, the state has set up an online tip portal to capture citizen-generated evidence of federal misconduct or unlawful behavior, including cellphone images, after the U.S. Department of Justice refused to share evidence in Good’s death with county prosecutors and Ellison’s office. Similar evidence-gathering portals or federal accountability commissions are in place in Colorado, Illinois and Oregon.

When ordinary people capture aggressive federal tactics on video, Ellison said, they’re also helping make a case in federal court that the mass federal deployment of immigration agents to their states is unconstitutional and violates state sovereignty. Minnesota has sued to end ICE’s aggressive enforcement action in the state, officially known as Operation Metro Surge.

Such evidence could also be critical if the federal government continues to resist investigating or pursuing federal criminal charges against the unidentified agents who killed Pretti, as well as Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed Good. In a separate case, a federal judge issued an order after Pretti’s death blocking the Trump administration from destroying or altering evidence related to the shooting.

Constitutional limits make it difficult, although not impossible, for states to prosecute federal officers for violations of state law, said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. But there are some successful cases in which states have pursued officers who are alleged to have gone beyond the scope of their federal duties or have acted unreasonably in carrying out those duties, she said.

Such cases arise most frequently during periods of considerable friction between states and the federal government, Godar said, including disputes over enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, Prohibition, and integration and desegregation policies. Another such test of federalism and state sovereignty may be upon us, she said.

“It seems like we’re potentially entering another period or in another period of increased friction between the states and the federal government in a way that could lead to these cases again,” Godar said.

Ellison said that state and county investigators were proceeding carefully and deliberately with their own investigation.

“It’s true that the feds are denying us access to the investigative file,” Ellison said. “It’s also true that there’s no statute of limitations on murder.”

Noem has repeatedly insisted that ICE agents and other officers are the actual victims of the increased violence. She also has argued that protests and scrutiny of their enforcement tactics has not only interfered with their operations, but also has provoked the aggressive federal response.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche said Jan. 16 that the Justice Department will provide all resources necessary to support immigration enforcement, and will prosecute anyone they determine has attacked, impeded or obstructed federal efforts. The Justice Department issued subpoenas last week to multiple Minnesota Democratic officials in an investigation into whether those state leaders have impeded the enforcement surge.

In Minneapolis last week after meeting with immigration agents, Vice President JD Vance suggested the cellphone activism is causing the violence. He blamed “a few very far-left agitators” for the aggressive federal response, saying federal agents were “under an incredible amount of duress” and that state and local authorities had failed to cooperate. Following Good’s death, Vance described it as “a tragedy of her own making.”

“A lot of these guys are unable to do their jobs without being harassed, without being doxed, and sometimes without being assaulted,” Vance said, flanked by federal immigration officials working in Minnesota. “That’s totally unacceptable.”

Often, bystanders capture photos and video at great personal risk, as neighborhoods are swarmed by heavily armed federal agents in unmarked cars smashing car windows and dragging drivers to the ground, ramming doors at private residences and spraying protesters and observers in the face with chemical irritants. The bystanders’ videos frequently counter official, federal accounts of events.

The citizen-generated evidence aids in accountability and in making their case of federal overreach, said Ellison, who in 2021 led the successful prosecution of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd. Chauvin’s conviction relied in part on 10 minutes of cellphone footage filmed by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier.

Ellison and the other Democratic attorneys general encouraged people to continue bearing witness and posting to social media.

“Much of the evidence we’ve been able to generate is because of you,” Ellison said. “You have to fight in a courtroom. We absolutely have to. But ultimately, this country will be saved by the people of the United States. And so that means you’re protesting, you’re gathering evidence, you’re sharing with us … is actually how we’re going to win.”

Since their first lawsuit targeting Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order at the beginning of his term in 2025, the Democratic AGs have filed 77 cases. They’ve won 43 of the 53 resolved cases, according to a tracker from the Progressive State Leaders Committee.

It’s not that they want to file so many lawsuits, but they know they must, said Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who hosted Ellison, Rob Bonta of California, Anne Lopez of Hawaii and Aaron Frey of Maine. Oregon hadn’t even been to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue a case in a decade, Rayfield said, until the state took the lead last year on behalf of a coalition of a dozen states that sued over Trump’s sweeping tariff policy on most goods entering the United States.

“We’re not backing down,” Rayfield said. “We aren’t going to let this president continue to chip away our rights and our democracy at this time. We’re going to continue to fight for this entire term and do our job as attorneys general.”

Beyond the AGs, individuals, businesses, labor unions, professional associations, universities, local governments and other entities have filed 593 cases against the president’s expansion of executive branch powers since the beginning of his term, according to the daily digital law policy journal Just Security.

“The unlawfulness has only escalated,” Bonta said. “It’s gotten worse.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany who is running for governor, said he had not seen the video of the shooting at a Monday press conference, more than 48 hours after the shooting occurred and as video of the shooting has circulated on social media and in major news outlets. Tiffany at his campaign launch in September 2025. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin politicians are responding to the shooting of Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse from Green Bay who was killed Saturday by U.S. Border Patrol agents. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the frontrunner in the Republican gubernatorial primary, said Monday he hadn’t seen widely circulated video of the shooting.

Pretti’s death prompted protests across the country including in Green Bay, his  hometown. Gov. Tony Evers  joined a lawsuit challenging the presence of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities. Other Wisconsin politicians issued a variety of statements reacting to the shooting.

U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, whose district includes Green Bay, called the shooting in Minneapolis a “tragedy” in a statement Monday. Pretti was a graduate of Green Bay’s Preble High School. 

“While we await a thorough investigation, I encourage my colleagues to tone down their rhetoric, which has put both law enforcement officers and the public at risk,” Wied said. “We can disagree on the issue but we must do so in a constructive and peaceful manner. Assaulting and impeding federal law enforcement is illegal and a recipe for disaster. As a country, we need to lower the temperature and allow law enforcement to do their jobs.” 

Video of the moments leading up to the shooting, which shows Pretti being pinned down by a group of immigration agents before being shot in the back, does not support Trump administration claims that he tried to assault or impede the agents.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor, said he had not seen the video of the shooting at a Monday press conference, more than 48 hours after the shooting occurred and as video of the shooting has circulated on social media and in major news outlets. Tiffany also called for “full investigation” of the shooting by the state and federal government.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tiffany also said people have the right to carry legally registered concealed guns but should consider potential consequences. Pretti was a licensed gun owner, who according to a CNN analysis of bystander video had his gun removed from him before officers shot him. 

“The problem is not the Second Amendment. If I saw a quote accurately this morning… it sounds like (Pretti’s) father had some discussion with him recently, saying, ‘Be careful when you go to something like this, make sure that you don’t get caught up in the chaos,” he said. “And unfortunately, he did.” 

Democrats, including some who are running for governor, criticized Tiffany. 

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker called Tiffany’s claim not to have seen the video “a pathetic excuse from a pathetic man.” 

“Tom Tiffany is, at best, a clueless coward and at worst a liar. Either way, he’s unfit to serve as governor of Wisconsin,” Remiker said.

“You haven’t watched the video yet? Let me sum it up for you,” former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said in a social media post. “Trump’s ICE needlessly killed a US citizen without justification.”

Other Democratic candidates had a variety of responses including calling for immigration agents  to vacate Minnesota and calling for the elimination of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  . ICE is responsible for enforcing immigration laws in the United States’s interior, while Border Patrol is supposed to do so near the country’s border, though according to USA Today, the two agencies have become increasingly hard to tell apart under the Trump administration. 

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) called for the abolishment of ICE after the shooting. 

“ICE under Trump is incompatible with a free society. The Trump regime is making every single one of us less safe and less free. They are destroying public safety. They refuse to respect our constitution, our law, or our rights,” Roys said in a statement. “The organized, violent actions of ICE have left us with no other choice but to disarm, dismantle, and prosecute ICE.”

State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), who joined protests according to social media posts, said “Wisconsin stands with everyone resisting ICE in Minnesota” and called ICE an “enforcer of fascism that must be abolished and those responsible for the executions prosecuted.” Last week at a candidate forum with all of the Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Hong said that “abolishing ICE is a meaningful policy.” 

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said that the country needs to “stop pretending that large-scale immigration enforcement operations” in the Midwest are about public safety. 

“People — regardless of immigration status or how federal authorities choose to define them — are in danger when ICE operates this way in our neighborhoods,” Crowley said. “At the same time, I echo Gov. Walz and Minnesota officials in urging people not to respond to violence with violence.” 

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who previously had proposed banning ICE from certain sites in Wisconsin, said that “a government that puts its own citizens in harm’s way has failed its most basic responsibility. And I will never look away when the government gets this wrong. We have a choice about who we are and what we stand for: safety without cruelty, accountability without fear, and dignity for every human being.”

Missy Hughes, the former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO, said that “the lawless and deadly ICE invasion of Minneapolis is unAmerican — and Donald Trump is responsible for it.” 

Joel Brennan, the former Department of Administration secretary, said he “recoiled in horror” watching the video of the recent fatal shooting and mourns for Pretti. He called for the “occupation” to end in American cities. 

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden has repeatedly claimed that the protests against ICE in Minneapolis are equivalent to an “insurrection.” He said on Monday in a Facebook post that he does not “celebrate the death of any American citizen” and the “deaths are tragic, and they never should have happened.” 

But Van Orden blamed Democrats for “fueling hostility toward federal law enforcement.”

“When elected leaders and their allies normalize interference with officers doing their jobs, the outcome is entirely predictable and tragic,” Van Orden said.

Van Orden went on to compare Democratic leaders who have demanded that ICE and Border Patrol agents leave Minneapolis to Civil War Confederates. 

“History has seen this before. In 1861, Confederates in the South demanded that federal troops abandon Fort Sumter. They framed it as de-escalation and local control. In reality, it was a rejection of federal authority and the rule of law. What began as political rhetoric and demands to remove federal presence quickly turned into open conflict, with deadly consequences for the nation,” Van Orden said. “As with any officer-involved shooting, this incident is under investigation. I fully support that process and will be closely following its findings. My support for federal law enforcement, and the rule of law they uphold, remains unwavering.”

CNN reported Monday that Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been at the center of the Trump administration immigration enforcement across the country, is leaving Minneapolis and DHS has suspended his access to his social media accounts. Trump is sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take charge of immigration enforcement  operations there.

Rebecca Cooke, who is challenging Van Orden in 2026, said in a social media post that Pretti’s  killing represents “a federal agency out of control. ICE needs to vacate Minnesota and leave our neighbors alone. This is not a policy disagreement, this is a moral imperative.”

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Photo by Gregory Conniff for Wisconsin Examiner

On July 4th, in the towns and counties of rural western Wisconsin, there were celebrations like on any other Independence Day: grilling bratwurst, drinking Leinenkugel’s, fireworks showering high in the summer night. 

That very same day, a thousand miles away in Washington, DC, HR1— also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) — was signed into law. Yet for people here, the passage of the bill was a mere blip in the national headlines. It was not apparent that it would become an economic earthquake, triggering a tsunami of devastating after-effects soon to crash down on our rural communities.

The massive tax cut and spending bill is the most dramatic restructuring of federal budget priorities in six decades. The president called the OBBBA his “greatest victory” and the “most popular bill ever signed.” The White House issued only a scant 237-word press release summarizing the 900-page law; the substance of the law itself was barely mentioned. When it was enacted, nearly two-thirds of Americans said they knew “little or nothing” about what was in the bill.

When asked about his support of the bill, my own representative from Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, Derrick Van Orden, dismissed any suggestion that the White House had influenced his vote. “The president of the United States didn’t give us an assignment. We’re not a bunch of little bitches around here, OK? I’m a member of Congress, I represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinites.” 

The OBBBA permanently extends the 2017 tax cuts and locks in a historic upward transfer of wealth. The top 1% of households receive an average tax cut of $66,000. Working families earning $53,000 or less get a tax cut of just $325. Roughly $1 trillion dollars will flow to the richest households over the next decade, while Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and health coverage are drastically scaled back, pushing 15 million people off insurance. 

‘I want to be part of a strategy, something that’s actually effective’

Last August, 70 of us gathered on a Saturday in Woodville, Wisconsin, population 1,400, with the understanding that something consequential was happening in our nation, yet struggling to figure out how we can respond. We filled a community center on Main Street for six hours: teachers, farmers, retirees, retail workers, students, small business owners. People brought notebooks and coffee. The windows were open. Ceiling fans spun slowly overhead. 

“I’m tired of complaining, feeling like a victim, worried about what’s going to happen next,” one of our members put it plainly. “I want to be part of a strategy, something that’s actually effective.”

I organize with Grassroots Organizing Western Wisconsin (GROWW). Our work has always started from a simple question: How does power move in the places we live? Since the organization began, our focus has been on local issues like housing, agriculture and rural broadband. But, at that meeting in Woodville, we were trying to name what was happening: how the political chaos in our federal government was flowing down to our families, counties, schools, cities, hospitals, town boards. And, most importantly, what we could actually do about it. 

That day in Woodville we made a plan. It did not involve protest or messaging. Our organizing has never been about reacting the fastest or shouting the loudest. Power is built methodically: identifying who makes decisions, who feels the consequences, and where solidarity can be established and strengthened before a harm is normalized and written off as inevitable. That is why we started with listening.

During the following three months we sat down face to face with nearly 100 local leaders across four counties. We met in offices, conference rooms and coffee shops. We spoke with school superintendents, sheriffs, county administrators, hospital executives, clergy, elected officials, business owners. We asked the same questions over and over: what were people experiencing in their jobs, what pressures were they under, what was keeping them up at night?

Many people we spoke with were overwhelmed by the effort required to stay focused on their jobs: the to-do lists, budgets, hiring, planning. One program director told us her job was mostly “putting out fires.” When we asked how they were reacting to federal policy changes, most people didn’t have much to say. Unless it was affecting them today, they didn’t have the luxury to worry about it. 

Each conversation made clear how county governments in rural Wisconsin are lifelines, not faceless bureaucracies. They plow snow, run elections, maintain roads, administer BadgerCare and SNAP, respond to mental health crises, operate nursing homes, and answer 911 calls. And they are already stretched thin.

Funding was the issue mentioned the most. A county administrator walked us through the elaborate gymnastics required to balance a county budget under state-imposed levy limits that make raising revenue nearly impossible: wheel taxes, bond sales, consolidating services. One-time fixes layered on top of structural gaps. Again, it came back to resources. Not culture wars, not ideology. Money.

Delaying the pain

What surprised us most was what we did not hear. Despite anxiety about shrinking budgets, very few people mentioned the One Big Beautiful Bill. It had not yet made a mark on their daily work. That is not accidental. The new law is designed to delay the pain, disperse responsibility, and conceal the damage out of public view until it feels inevitable.

We decided to look into the law’s ramifications. We did our own research, and what we learned is that rural and small-town communities in western Wisconsin are in for a slow-motion fiscal disaster, and that regular people will be the ones who pay the price. 

Starting in 2027, the federal government is scheduled to cut its share of SNAP administrative costs in half. In counties like Dunn, that shift could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in new local costs. A smaller administrative budget means fewer staff, which means slower processing, higher error rates, and federal penalties that reduce funding even further. The OBBBA seems designed to trigger countless downward spirals that degrade programs until they can be declared broken.

The repercussions for Medicaid follow the same pattern. At Golden Age Manor, the beloved county-run nursing home in Amery, where most of the services are Medicaid funded, even modest reimbursement cuts will translate into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars lost each year. At the same time, more uninsured residents will still need care.

Across our counties, more than 10,000 people rely on ACA Marketplace coverage for their health insurance. Since federal tax credits expired at the end of 2025, families face premium increases averaging around $1,600 a year. Some will pay far more. Many will drop coverage altogether. When they do, costs will shift to county-funded behavioral health systems and other services already operating at the limits of their resources.

One sheriff described what that will look like in practice: “When someone is in a mental health crisis, our deputies already spend hours driving them across the state because there are no beds here,” he said. “If people lose coverage, those crises do not go away. They show up as 911 calls.”

We must act before the tsunami arrives

A tsunami is set in motion by a distant earthquake that no one feels. Life happens on shore while energy gathers fiercely far out at sea. Only a seismograph sounds the alarm. Once the wave arrives, entire cities are engulfed, communities washed out to sea. Trump’s massive tax cut and spending law was that earthquake. We have decided to act before the wave arrives.

Local governments will be forced to navigate what policy expert Eric Schnurer described as “fiscal and operational crises,” but few people will be able to connect what happens to a bill passed last year. “Most Americans don’t realize how dramatically state and local governments — which most directly affect their daily lives — are about to change.”

County budget hearings were held in November. They often happen with no public comment, gaveled in and gaveled out in a matter of minutes. Last year we showed up and filled the rooms. We brought letters we had drafted, breaking down projected budget impacts county by county. We delivered testimony from the podium. Our goal was not to blame our county leaders, but to signal our alignment with them. 

After one hearing, a county administrator, a self-identified fiscal conservative, met with us and said, “Every point you raised in your letter was correct. Our county government has to brace for what’s coming, and you made that clear to everyone in the room.”

The people who will be hit hardest

We know our county boards are not responsible for causing this disaster, yet they will be forced to deal with it, while we, the residents, will be the ones who feel the cuts most deeply. Our members of Congress who voted “yes” for this bill are the ones responsible for this mess. 

Letters and testimony are not enough. What we need is power. For regular people like us, there is but one path to power: organizing. That means we have to talk to those who will be most affected, inviting them to see their personal stake in this fight. The single parent in River Falls, juggling two part-time jobs and relying on SNAP to keep food on the table. The kid with asthma in Boyceville, whose parents rely on ACA coverage, now at risk of losing access to care. The retired farmer outside Balsam Lake, whose wife’s long-term care at Golden Age Manor nursing home is covered through Medicaid. 

Our long game is to begin the conversation about what it will take for Congress to repeal the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The path to repeal will be fraught with political roadblocks and fiercely opposed by the corporate class, which has been true for every consequential victory working people have ever won in this country. Repealing the law must become a defining issue in every political conversation in America – at dinner tables, at bus stops, and on Reddit threads – starting now and continuing until the law is gone. 

Cracks are already beginning to form. Earlier this month, Rep. Van Orden, along with 17 other Republicans in the House of Representatives, backpedaled on his support of the OBBBA by voting to extend ACA tax credits (more than 30,000 people are expected to lose health insurance in Van Orden’s district). However, the opposition stiffens. Shortly after the vote, in a disciplinary move, Americans For Prosperity announced it was pausing support for those who defected.

Cutting services, expanding the machinery of repression

As I write, immigration agents are spilling into western Wisconsin from Minneapolis, swarming small towns and rural communities across the region. They are driving unmarked vehicles with out-of-state plates. Some members of our organization have built rapid response networks in solidarity with immigrant-led groups. Meanwhile, our neighbors are being terrorized, taken from their homes, and families are being ripped apart. Some local Mexican restaurants and grocery stores have closed their doors. Just sixty miles west, in Minneapolis, two American citizens have been killed by ICE agents. 

This is not a coincidence. While showering billionaires with tax benefits, the OBBBA also massively expands the machinery of repression. It quadrupled the budget of ICE, expanding its force by 10,000 agents and thereby transforming the agency into one larger than most national militaries. On one hand, the administration subjects us to the cruel spectacle of paramilitary raids, disappearances and death. On the other, the administration dismantles the social safety nets that keep people alive, then redistributes public resources to the wealthiest few. A loud disruptive culture war creates a smokescreen for a quiet methodical class war. 

The fight for Congress to repeal the OBBBA will be a David versus Goliath fight. It is a fight about whether the super-rich will be able to bleed us dry and starve our local institutions. Whether our neighbors will die as wealth is extracted from above. Whether daily life for a majority of Americans will be defined by relentless top-down class war. 

This fight will not be won by politicians, consultants, or pollsters. It will be won by regular people who have decided to build a movement town by town, county by county, state by state. The ramifications of the OBBBA are so wide and deep that a new political coalition will be necessary, one big enough to include anyone who isn’t a billionaire. Republicans, Democrats, independents, libertarians, socialists, and people who’ve lost faith in politics altogether. White people, brown people, Black people, young people, old people. The poor, the working class, the middle class. 

An unwavering commitment to big tent politics and multiracial solidarity is how we defeat the divide-and-conquer tactics this administration relies upon. Building trust and power across differences. Not reinforcing divides through purity tests or theoretical debate. Listening for common ground and shared humanity. Seeing every person as a potential ally, not an enemy to defeat. We must organize, strategize and mobilize until regular Americans have won the freedom to make ends meet, live with dignity, and have a voice in the decisions that affect us.

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CoCounsel Legal is an artificial intelligence tool that acts as a virtual assistant for legal professionals. More people in the legal field are using AI to automate repetitive tasks and save time, but hallucinations have led to fake cases and false information in legal documents. (Photo by Madyson Fitzgerald/Stateline)

Last spring, Illinois county judge Jeffrey Goffinet noticed something startling: A legal brief filed in his courtroom cited a case that did not exist.

Goffinet, an associate judge in Williamson County, looked through two legal research systems and then headed to the courthouse library — a place he hadn’t visited in years — to consult the book that purportedly listed the case. The case wasn’t in it.

The fake case, generated by artificial intelligence, came across Goffinet’s desk just a few months after the Illinois Supreme Court’s policy on the use of AI in the courts took effect. Goffinet co-chaired a task force that informed that policy, which allows the use of AI as long as it complies with existing legal and ethical standards.

“People are going to use [AI], and the courts are not going to be able to be a dam across a river that’s already flowing at flood capacity,” Goffinet said. “We have to learn how to coexist with it.”

As more false quotes, fake court cases and incorrect information appear in legal documents generated by AI, state bar associations, state court systems and national law organizations are issuing guidance on its use in the legal field. A handful of states are considering or enacting legislation to address the issue, and many courts and professional associations are focused on education for attorneys.

Federal judge mulls sanctions for attorneys who used AI in court filing

From divorce cases to discrimination lawsuits, AI-generated fake content can cause evidence to be dismissed and motions to be denied.

While some states urge attorneys to lean on existing guidance about accuracy and transparency, the new policies address AI concerns related to confidentiality, competency and costs. Most policies and opinions encourage attorneys to educate themselves and to use proprietary AI tools that prevent sensitive data from being entered into open source systems. Since AI tools could also increase efficiency, several policies advise attorneys to charge less if they spend less time on cases.

Some states, such as Ohio, also ban the use of artificial intelligence for certain legal tasks. In Ohio, courts are prohibited from using AI to translate legal forms, court orders and similar content that may affect the outcome of a case.

Several states have also advised legal professionals to adhere to the American Bar Association’s formal opinion of ethical AI use in law.

Artificial intelligence can help attorneys and law firms by automating administrative tasks, analyzing contracts and organizing documents. Generative AI can also be used to draft legal documents, including court briefs. Experts say the use of AI productivity tools can save legal professionals time and reduce the risk of human error in everyday tasks.

But law professionals nationwide have faced fines and license suspensions, among other consequences, for submitting legal documents citing false quotes, cases or information.

Many legal professionals are likely to not notice instances in which an AI system is “hallucinating,” or confidently making statements that are not true, said Rabihah Butler, the manager for enterprise content for Risk, Fraud and Government at the Thomson Reuters Institute. The institute is a research subsidiary of the Thomson Reuters company, which sells an AI system meant to help lawyers.

Courts and law organizations will need to consider education, sanctions and punitive actions to ensure law professionals are using AI appropriately, Butler said.

“AI has such confidence, and it can appear so polished, that if you’re not paying attention and doing your due diligence, the hallucination is being treated as a factual piece of information,” she said.

Since the beginning of 2025, there have been 518 documented cases in which generative AI produced hallucinated content used in U.S. courts, according to a database by Damien Charlotin, a senior research fellow at the HEC Paris business school.

“So far, if we’re looking at the institutional response, there’s not a lot because people are not very sure how to handle this kind of issue,” Charlotin said. “Everyone is aware that some lawyers are using artificial intelligence in their day-to-day work. Most people are aware that the technology is not very mature. But it’s still hard to prevent a mistake.”

State guidance

As of Jan. 23, state bar associations or similar entities have issued formal guidance on the use of AI in at least 10 states and the District of Columbia, typically in the form of an ethics opinion. Those aren’t enforceable as law, but spell out proper conduct.

In February, for example, the Professional Ethics Committee for the State Bar of Texas issued an ethics opinion that outlines issues that may arise from law professionals using AI. Texas lawyers should have a basic understanding of generative AI tools and guardrails to protect client confidentiality, it said. They should also verify any content generated by AI and refrain from charging clients for the time saved by using AI tools.

Legal professionals must be aware of their own competency with AI tools, said Brad Johnson, the executive director of the Texas Center for Legal Ethics.

“A really important takeaway from the opinion is that if a lawyer is considering using a generative AI tool in the practice of law, the lawyer has to have a reasonable and current understanding of the technology because only then can a lawyer really evaluate the risks that are associated with it,” he said.

Court systems in at least 11 states — Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia — have established policies or issued rules of conduct regarding AI use by law professionals.

Illinois, for instance, allows lawyers to use artificial intelligence and does not require disclosure. The policy also emphasizes that judges will ultimately be responsible for their decisions, regardless of “technological advancements.”

“The task force wanted to emphasize that as judges, what we bring to the table is our humanity,” said Goffinet, the associate judge. “And we cannot abdicate our humanity in favor of an AI-generated decision or opinion.”

Former lawyer seeks reinstatement after sanctions, arrest and contempt findings

Some state lawmakers have tried to address the issue through legislation. Last year, Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed a measure that requires attorneys to use “reasonable diligence” to verify the authenticity of evidence, including content generated by artificial intelligence. The law also allows parties in civil cases to raise concerns about the admissibility of evidence if they suspect it was generated or altered by artificial intelligence.

California Democratic state Sen. Tom Umberg also introduced legislation last year that would require attorneys to ensure confidential information is not entered into a public generative AI system. The measure, which was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, also would require attorneys to ensure that reasonable steps are taken to verify the accuracy of generative AI material.

Attorney education

It’s also important for state bar associations and law schools to provide education on artificial intelligence, said Michael Hensley, a counsel at FBT Gibbons and an advocate for the safe use of AI in California courts. AI has the ability to reduce research time just like online legal research systems, but it requires training, he said.

“I would hope the state bar would have training for this,” Hensley said. “And I think it’s absolutely imperative that law schools have a session on AI.”

In a Bloomberg Law survey conducted last spring, 51% of the more than 750 respondents said their law firms purchased or invested in generative artificial intelligence tools. Another 21% said they planned to purchase AI tools within the next year. Attorneys reported using generative AI for general legal research, drafting communications, summarizing legal narratives, reviewing legal documents and other work.

Of the law firms that were not using generative AI, attorneys cited incorrect or unreliable output, ethical issues, security risks and data privacy as the top reasons.

While attorneys and law firms have become more comfortable with AI tools, courts have been more apprehensive, said Diane Robinson, a principal court research associate at the National Center for State Courts. Robinson is also project director at the Thomson Reuters Institute/NCSC AI Policy Consortium for Law and Courts, an association of legal practitioners and researchers developing guidance and resources for the use of AI in courts.

AI has the potential to improve case processing and can allow people needing legal advice to find information by using AI chatbots, she said. But, she added, courts are still struggling with evidence altered by AI and briefs littered with hallucinations.

“Fake evidence is nothing new,” Robinson said. “People have been altering photographs as long as there were photographs. But with AI, the ability to create videos, audio and pictures has become very easy, and courts are really struggling with it.”

Charlotin, of HEC Paris, said most courts and professional associations will continue to focus on education right now.

“You cannot prevent a mistake just by telling people, ‘Don’t make a mistake,’” Charlotin said. “That doesn’t work. It’s more about setting up processes to make people aware of it, then they can set up processes to work on dealing with it.”

Stateline reporter Madyson Fitzgerald can be reached at mfitzgerald@stateline.org.

Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly speaks with reporters in the Mansfield Room of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s lawyers on Monday urged a federal judge to block the Defense Department from downgrading his retirement rank as a Navy captain and his pay for telling U.S. troops they aren’t required to follow illegal orders. 

Paul J. Fishman wrote in a 35-page filing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to punish Kelly for appearing in the video alongside other members of Congress violates several constitutional rights.  

“As a decorated combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Kelly is deeply committed to the necessity of good order and discipline in the armed forces,” Fishman wrote. “He asks this Court to reinforce, not degrade, those principles. 

“His speech—simply reminding servicemembers of their fundamental obligation not to follow unlawful orders— promotes good order. And discipline does not demand silence —particularly from those no longer serving on active duty.”

Fishman firmly rejected the Department of Justice’s assertion in a brief filed last week that the federal court system has no authority over the Defense Department’s actions in this instance. 

“Defendants begin from the premise that questions of ‘military discipline’ lie beyond judicial review,” Fishman wrote. “Their claim that this Court is ‘not permitted to address’ Senator Kelly’s challenge disregards reams of precedent reviewing military disciplinary actions and demands an untenable level of deference.”

Senior Judge Richard J. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush, had scheduled a hearing on the issue for Wednesday, but postponed that until Feb. 3 due to the snowstorm. 

Hegseth pursues penalties

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced earlier this month that he had started the process to downgrade Kelly’s retirement rank and pay, writing in a social media post that his “status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action.”

The Defense Department letter of censure to Kelly alleged that his participation in the video undermined the military chain of command, counseled disobedience, created confusion about duty, brought discredit upon the Armed Forces and included conduct unbecoming of an officer. 

The video at the center of the debate featured Kelly, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, Pennsylvania Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, and New Hampshire Rep. Maggie Goodlander, all Democrats with backgrounds in the military or intelligence community.

They said that Americans in those institutions “can” and “must refuse illegal orders.”

“No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution. We know this is hard and that it’s a difficult time to be a public servant,” they said. “But whether you’re serving in the CIA, in the Army, or Navy, or the Air Force, your vigilance is critical.”

Kelly lawyer’s arguments

Fishman wrote in his brief that the Trump administration is asking the court to “embrace a novel rule” regarding the First Amendment: “that retired military veterans have no constitutional protection for their speech whenever the Secretary of Defense—in his sole discretion and without even identifying all of the speech at issue—concludes that it ‘risks undermining military discipline and good order.’” 

The Justice Department’s brief from last week, he wrote, erroneously argued that retired military officers can legally face punishment for speaking out against Defense Department policies they oppose.

“From Alexander Hamilton denouncing President Adams’s fitness to command during the Quasi-War, to modern episodes in which retired generals publicly called for Secretary Rumsfeld’s resignation over the Iraq War, retired officers have long participated forcefully in public debate over military policy,” Fishman wrote. 

“The same is true today: retired servicemembers, including Members of Congress, have openly criticized presidential decisions ranging from the Afghanistan withdrawal to vaccination requirements,” he added. “Many continue to serve with distinction as legislators, governors, and federal judges. Yet against that backdrop, Defendants assert the power to limit the First Amendment rights of more than two million retired servicemembers, all without judicial review.”

Pictures of Alex Pretti sit in front of his home on Jan. 26, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA medical center, died Jan. 25, after being shot multiple times during a brief altercation with Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday urged Senate Democrats to advance the government funding package that must become law before the weekend to avoid a partial shutdown, rejecting their proposal to remove the Homeland Security funding bill.

Democrats in the upper chamber say they are ready to help pass five of the six bills, but insist the Homeland Security spending measure must be stripped and renegotiated to include more constraints on federal immigration enforcement after officers killed a second American citizen in Minnesota this weekend. 

“We absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse and we want the Senate to move forward with passing the bipartisan appropriations package that was negotiated on a bipartisan basis,” Leavitt said. 

Negotiators in Congress have reached bipartisan consensus on each of the dozen full-year government spending bills during the last few months, though the final bills still need to clear the Senate and become law.

Funding for hundreds of programs in those measures lapses Friday at midnight, when the stopgap spending law Congress approved at the end of the last shutdown expires.  

A partial shutdown would affect the Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury. The Executive Office of the President, Supreme Court and judicial branch would also go without funding if a solution cannot be reached in time. 

Leavitt said during the briefing that “policy discussions on immigration in Minnesota are happening” and pointed to the phone call that President Donald Trump and Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz had earlier in the day. 

“But that should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people, which would include FEMA funding,” Leavitt said. “And we are in the midst of the storm that took place over the weekend and many Americans are still being impacted by that.”

The Homeland Security appropriations bill funds numerous programs in addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Flood Insurance Fund, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration are among the other agencies that rely on the bill for budget authority. 

Schumer demands removal of DHS bill 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement that Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., should remove the Homeland Security funding bill from the larger package before the deadline to avoid a lapse in funding. 

“The responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans,” he wrote. “If Leader Thune puts those five bills on the floor this week, we can pass them right away. If not, Republicans will again be responsible for another government shutdown.”

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, in a brief floor speech urged lawmakers from both political parties to vote to advance the full funding package, calling the possibility of another shutdown “harmful, unnecessary and disastrous.”

“I hope we can come together in a constructive way to get this done and to ensure that we do not lurch into a dangerous and detrimental government shutdown,” she said. 

Collins did acknowledge the killing of Alex Pretti over the weekend, saying his “tragic death” had “refocused attention on the Homeland Security bill and I recognize that and share the concerns.” 

“I do want to point out to my colleagues that there are many safeguards that have been put in this bill that I would encourage them to review,” Collins added without going into detail. “And that the vast majority of the funding in this bill, more than 80%, is for non-immigration and non-border security functions.” 

A Senate Republican aide, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said GOP leaders are “determined to not have another government shutdown.” 

“We will move forward as planned and hope Democrats can find a path forward to join us,” the aide added. 

A Senate Democratic leadership aide said that “Republicans and the White House have reached out but have not yet raised any realistic solutions.”

‘Government shutdowns do not help anyone’

Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Katie Britt, R-Ala., wrote in a social media post that the array of programs in that bill “are critical to keeping Americans safe and must be funded.”

“We know from recent history that government shutdowns do not help anyone and are not in the best interest of the American people,” Britt wrote, referring to the shutdown of historic length that ended Nov. 12. “As we approach a government funding deadline, I remain committed to finding a pathway forward.”

Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union with Jake Tapper & Dana Bash” that he couldn’t “vote to fund this lawless Department of Homeland Security.” 

“And remember, it’s not just in Minnesota. They’re violating the law all over the country,” Murphy said. “I spent last week in Texas where they are locking up 2-year-old and 3-year-old kids who are here in the United States legally, just for the purpose of traumatizing them.”

Fetterman, Shaheen part ways

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman appeared to be the only member of his party in that chamber to support the entire package, writing in a statement he “will never vote to shut our government down, especially our Defense Department.”

“I reject the calls to defund or abolish ICE. I strongly disagree with many strategies and practices ICE deployed in Minneapolis, and believe that must change,” Fetterman wrote. “I want a conversation on the DHS appropriations bill and support stripping it from the minibus. It is unlikely that will happen and our country will suffer another shutdown.”

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen backed the strategy of pulling out the Homeland Security spending bill and allowing the other five government funding bills to become law before the shutdown deadline.

“The Senate then needs to have a real bipartisan discussion about what additional reforms we need to put in place to prevent tragedies like Minneapolis from happening across the country,” Shaheen wrote in a social media post. “I will vote against DHS’s funding until additional reforms are in place.”

Federal agents spray demonstrators at close range with irritants after the killing of Renee Good by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. Since July 2025, there have been at least 17 open-fire incidents involving federal immigration agents, according to data compiled by The Trace, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet investigating gun violence. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday that Wisconsin has signed on to an effort to support the state of Minnesota’s lawsuit seeking to challenge the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents in the Twin Cities area. 

Minnesota filed its lawsuit after the federal government sent about 3,000 federal agents into the region and an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good Jan. 7. On Saturday, agents shot and killed Alex Pretti. Minnesota is seeking a temporary restraining order against the federal government’s actions.

Late last week, Wisconsin joined Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, District Of Columbia, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington in filing an amicus brief supporting Minnesota’s case. 

“DHS has set in motion an extraordinary campaign of recklessness and disregard for norms of constitutional policing and the sanctity of life,” the brief states. “This has resulted in federal agents that have fatally shot one resident, seriously wounded others, tear gassed an infant and other children, attacked peaceful protestors, and systematically conducted illegal stops and arrests. When tragedy has struck and public outcry rung out, the response has been a promise to deliver more of the same. Indeed, just days ago, President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, and it is reported that the Pentagon is preparing 1,500 troops to possibly deploy to Minnesota, reflecting the Administration’s desire to further escalate tensions and put the military into an unlawful domestic role.” 

The brief argues that the states have a “strong interest in ensuring that federal immigration enforcement is not used as an excuse to infringe the sovereignty of the States,” and that if allowed to continue unchecked in Minnesota, will likely repeat the pattern elsewhere. 

“Under the claimed auspices of carrying out immigration enforcement, the federal government has seriously undermined state and local authorities and made it impossible for the public to go about their day-to-day activities because they fear being stopped, tear gassed, or worse,” the brief states. “If left unchecked, the federal government will no doubt be emboldened to continue its unlawful conduct in Minnesota and to repeat it elsewhere.” 

Evers said in a statement that Wisconsin has a responsibility to stand up for its neighbor and work to prevent further damage. 

“Wisconsin stands with our neighbors across the river in Minnesota. American citizens are having their rights and freedoms violated and are being put in unsafe and life-threatening situations in their own communities,” Evers said. “Two have already lost their lives. It has to stop.” 

“In Minnesota and across our country, dangerous and unlawful actions at the hands of untrained individuals are sowing fear, division, and distrust,” Evers added. “This isn’t helping make our kids, families, and communities safer—in fact, it’s doing the opposite. It’s clearer than ever that this has nothing to do with public safety. And, as states, we have a responsibility to stand up and say no more.”

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UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin will be leaving the university at the end of the school year to become president of Columbia University. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin is set to leave her post at the end of this school year to become the president of Columbia University in New York. 

Mnookin has served as UW-Madison’s chancellor since 2022, leading the university as it has faced pressure from Wisconsin Republicans to end diversity programs as well as cuts to federal research grants and tensions surrounding a pro-Palestine encampment on campus. 

“It has been a true honor to be a part of the Wisconsin family,” Mnookin said in a statement Sunday. “I am proud of what we have accomplished together, even in a challenging period for higher education, and I know great possibilities lie ahead for the UW-Madison campus community.”

After her departure was announced, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) praised Mnookin’s tenure. 

“Chancellor Mnookin had many great accomplishments during her tenure, such as bringing more free speech to campus and closing its division of DEI,” Vos said in a statement. “I enjoyed working with her as we both wanted students to reach their full potential and have a successful and impactful life after graduation. I wish her nothing but the best and I know that Columbia University will be in great hands with her at the helm.”

Mnookin will be taking over at Columbia as the university has been under a national microscope following pro-Palestine protests and a crackdown by both campus officials and the Trump administration. Last year, Columbia agreed to pay the federal government about $200 million to restore federal funding that had been cut. 

Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman will name an interim chancellor to take the role after Mnookin leaves following spring commencement. The UW system board of regents will launch a search for someone to fill the role permanently. 

“During her tenure, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin brought unbounded energy, resilience, and deeply thoughtful leadership to this great university. As she now takes on a new opportunity at another prestigious institution, we extend our substantial gratitude for her service and wish her continued success in the years ahead,” Rothman said.

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U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan speaks at the Tampa Convention Center on July 12, 2025. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)

WASHINGTON — U.S. border czar Tom Homan is expected in Minneapolis by Monday evening, President Donald Trump said, amid increasing criticism of the administration’s immigration enforcement methods following the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration officers in Minneapolis already this year.

The move was part of an apparent toning down of the administration’s rhetoric against the city as a growing number of members of Congress from both parties raised concerns about the Saturday shooting death of 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal immigration agents.

Trump reported a notably civil call with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat with whom the president has often clashed, around midday Monday.

“It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump said of the conversation. “The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during an afternoon briefing that Gregory Bovino, the U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large, would “continue to lead” immigration agents across the country, but did not address whether he would be active in Minneapolis once Homan arrived. 

CNN reported Monday afternoon  Bovino and some of his agents were set to depart the city. 

The Atlantic reported late Monday that Bovino would be removed from his position of commander-at-large and return to his former job as chief of Border Patrol’s El Centro, California, sector ahead of an imminent retirement. The New York Times also reported Bovino was being reassigned.

Homan “has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there,” Trump wrote on social media. “Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.”

Leavitt repeated throughout a 20-minute White House press briefing the administration’s position that Democratic state and local officials were responsible for the situation in Minneapolis, but declined to endorse the harshest descriptions of Pretti that administration leaders, including top White House aide Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have used.

Border czar

Early in his second administration, Trump tasked Homan with carrying out the president’s mass deportation campaign, which has faced significant pushback in Minneapolis.

Homan, who is expected to be in Minnesota by the evening, is the former ICE head of removal operations during the Obama administration and served as acting ICE director during the first Trump administration. 

Leavitt said Monday that Homan will be “the point person for cooperating with state and local authorities in corresponding with them, again, to achieve this level of cooperation to subdue the chaos on the streets of Minneapolis.”

Homan’s arrival comes while thousands of Minnesotans mourn and protest Saturday’s killing of Pretti, an intensive care nurse who appeared to be acting as a legal observer when Border Patrol agents tackled him to the ground, pinned him and shot him multiple times.

His was the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration officers in Minneapolis this year. Federal immigration officer Jonathan Ross killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a mother and poet, Jan. 7. 

Multiple videos captured the killings of both Good and Pretti, further sparking outcry from the community. 

Investigation underway

Leavitt said an investigation into Pretti’s killing is underway with the FBI, Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations. Noem, who oversees HSI and CBP, labeled Pretti “a domestic terrorist,” the same term she applied to Good.

“The administration is reviewing everything with respect to the shooting, and we will let that investigation play out,” Leavitt said. 

Bovino said on CNN Sunday that the agents involved in the shooting of Pretti, are still on duty and while they will be taken off the streets of Minneapolis, they will still be allowed to conduct immigration enforcement.

The top Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said in a statement Monday that those officers still being on duty is contrary to CBP’s use-of-force policy, which requires three days of paid leave after an agent uses deadly force either on duty or off.

“It defies commonsense – and is completely inexcusable – that the agent who killed Alex Pretti Saturday is already back in the field terrorizing our communities and believing – as Greg Bovino has so wrongly asserted – that he is the victim,” he said. “At a minimum, the agent should be on Administrative Leave.”

Congressional response

Saturday’s killing could have far-reaching consequences on Capitol Hill.

Several congressional Democrats over the weekend coalesced to oppose any funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement, increasing the chances of a partial government shutdown at the end of the week. 

The shooting also appeared to prompt a handful of congressional Republicans to adjust their position on Trump’s year-long immigration crackdown. 

The chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland and Governmental Affairs, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, called Monday for the heads of ICE, CBP and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to testify for a hearing by Feb. 12.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, a New York Republican, also called on the same officials to testify in front of his committee. 

Sen. John Curtis of Utah was the latest of a handful of Senate Republicans calling for a thorough investigation into the killing and for “those responsible—no matter their title—” to be held accountable.

“I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence,” he wrote on social media. “I will be working with a bipartisan group of senators to demand real oversight and transparency, including supporting calls from @RandPaul for leaders of these operations to testify, so trust can be restored and justice served.”

White House’s terms for Minnesota

For nearly two months, 3,000 federal immigration officers have descended on Minneapolis, dwarfing the city’s police force of roughly 600. The Trump administration deployed the officers for immigration enforcement after right-wing media influencers resurfaced instances of fraud in Minnesota’s social service programs. 

Leavitt said Monday the Trump administration would only end immigration operations if state and local leaders instructed police to cooperate closely with federal immigration officers.

Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and states and localities are not required to assist.

Some localities and states have agreements that local police will notify federal immigration officers if a person they arrest is an immigrant without legal authorization. 

But some jurisdictions don’t participate because the practice can divert resources or can open law enforcement up to lawsuits for unlawfully detaining an individual for an immigration violation, unless there is a judicial warrant. 

Attorneys representing the state of Minnesota and city of Minneapolis argued to Judge Kate M. Menendez on Monday that the Trump administration was trying to bend the state to the federal government’s will, a violation of the Constitution’s 10th amendment. 

The suit, in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, is attempting to block the ICE surge in the state. 

Trump, in his Monday social media post, blamed the massive protests in Minnesota on “Welfare Fraud that has taken place in Minnesota, and is at least partially responsible for the violent organized protests going on in the streets.” 

A September poll from First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group, found that 4 out of 5 rural Americans “say the ability of working parents to find and afford quality child care is either in a ‘state of crisis’ or ‘a major problem.’” (Photo by Sue Barr/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Several U.S. Senate Democrats launched an investigation into how the Trump administration’s child care funding cuts and policy changes are affecting rural families, in a Sunday letter provided exclusively to States Newsroom.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Raphael Warnock of Georgia led four of their colleagues in urging the respective heads of Rural Development at the Department of Agriculture and the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services to offer up more information on their “current capacity to support child care, particularly in rural communities.” 

Joining Warren and Warnock are Sens. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, Alex Padilla of California and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. 

“Despite child care being one of the biggest costs American families face, the Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the federal programs that aim to make child care more accessible and affordable, including ACF and USDA’s Rural Development Office,” the senators wrote to acting Under Secretary for Rural Development Todd Lindsey and ACF’s Assistant Secretary Alex Adams. 

USDA Rural Development and ACF work to expand access to child care in rural areas. 

The senators pointed to a September poll from First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group, which found that 4 out of 5 rural Americans “say the ability of working parents to find and afford quality child care is either in a ‘state of crisis’ or ‘a major problem.’” 

The group said the administration’s slashing of staff at agencies and programs that support affordable child care, including ACF and Rural Development at USDA, are raising concerns that the administration is “failing families across the country and adding to the affordability crisis facing working-class families.” 

Cuts from federal child care fund to Dem states

The senators raised alarm over some of the administration’s most sweeping actions regarding child care programs, including attempts to cut off nearly $2.4 billion from the multibillion-dollar Child Care and Development Fund, or CCDF, to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York earlier in January. 

All are led by Democratic governors and the administration cited concerns about allegations of fraud.

CCDF — administered within the Office of Child Care under ACF — provides federal funding to states, territories and tribes to help low-income families obtain child care.

The five Democratic-led states sued in a New York federal court over the freeze, which also included $7.35 billion from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and $869 million from the Social Services Block Grant — totaling more than $10 billion when combined with CCDF. 

A judge temporarily blocked the administration from freezing the funds earlier this month. A separate judge extended that order Friday. 

“States are challenging the legality of this freeze, but the consequences would be devastating should the courts permit the administration to permanently withhold the funds,” the senators wrote. 

Days prior to the announced freeze, the administration said states had to provide “justification” that federal child care funds they receive are spent on “legitimate” providers to get those dollars.

That demand followed allegations of fraud in Minnesota child care programs, which had prompted HHS to freeze all child care payments to the state.

The administration also announced earlier in January it would be rescinding multiple Biden administration child care rules that “required states to pay providers before verifying any attendance and before care was delivered.” 

Head Start in rural America

The Democrats argued that President Donald Trump has also “attacked Head Start at every turn since his inauguration.” 

ACF administers Head Start, which provides early childhood education, nutritious meals, health screenings and other support services to low-income families. 

The senators noted that “Head Start is especially crucial in rural communities, where it is often the only licensed child care program available.” 

During the record-long government shutdown in 2025, scores of Head Start centers experienced lapses in funding grants as a result.  

Even prior to the shutdown, Head Start already experienced chaos during the Trump administration, such as reports of delays in accessing approved grant funding, regional office closures and firings at ACF’s Office of Head Start.

Flood of workers departing USDA 

Meanwhile, USDA saw more than 20,000 employees leave in the first half of 2025, according to a report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. More than one-third of the agency’s Rural Development unit left during that time.  

“Instead of strengthening the programs that aim to address the rural child care crisis, President Trump is firing the people who administer them,” the senators wrote. 

On top of that, the agency in March confirmed it would be slashing around $1 billion in previously announced funding for programs to help child care facilities, schools and food banks purchase from local farmers. 

USDA also faced backlash during the shutdown for refusing to tap into a multibillion-dollar contingency fund in order to keep benefits flowing for the country’s main food assistance program known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The senators urged Lindsey and Adams to respond to their inquiries by Feb. 16. 

USDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

In response to a request for comment, ACF said Monday it is “currently reviewing the U.S. Senators’ letter and will respond to them directly.” 

Green Bay residents protest the shooting of Alex Pretti | Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner

Green Bay protesters took to the streets Sunday afternoon in temperatures well below freezing to protest the killing of Alex Pretti, a graduate of Green Bay Preble High School who worked as an ICU nurse at a VA hospital in Minneapolis and was shot and killed Saturday by Border Patrol agents. As they crossed the Fox River, marchers formed a line longer than the Ray Nitschke Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Fox River. 

“The only people who can defend us is us,” Daniel Castillo, a member of the Green Bay Anti-War Committee, told the crowd. 

After he was shot by federal agents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino said Pretti, who was carrying a registered handgun when six Border Patrol agents tackled him, but did not unholster it, appeared eager to inflict “maximum damage” on assembled federal agents. Videos taken at the scene, showing Pretti holding a cellphone camera, not a gun, and trying to help a woman who was knocked to the ground by agents, as well as  what’s known about Pretti’s background, belie the Trump administration’s claims, the Minnesota Reformer reported.

In a statement, Pretti’s parents said they are “heartbroken but also very angry” and requested, “Please get the truth out about our son.” They said that “the sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting.”

“Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital,” the parents’ statement said in part. “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.”

Lori Blakeslee, communications director for the Green Bay Area Public School District, confirmed to the Wisconsin Examiner that Pretti graduated from Green Bay Preble High School in 2006. 

In an interview early Sunday afternoon, Travis Vanden Heuvel told the Examiner he and Pretti were in a choir program together, and that the two were friends during elementary and middle school. 

“I think he was standing up for what was right and just, and I’m saddened and angered by what happened and how it happened,” Vanden Heuvel said. 

Vanden Heuvel said when he learned about the shooting, not knowing who the victim was, the word he had been using to describe it was tragic. His old assistant choir director had reached out to let him know Pretti had been killed. 

“And tragic became devastating, not that this happening in America or in Minnesota didn’t already make it close to home,” Vanden Heuvel said. “I mean, I think we’ve been feeling it hit closer and closer to home.”

The Examiner previously reported on a march against ICE in downtown Green Bay almost a year ago, in the weeks that followed President Donald Trump’s inauguration. 

Castillo told the Examiner this is different from last year’s event.

“It was just the random activist that approached us and said, ‘Would you like to set up some sort of event that shows that immigrants are just people too?’” Castillo said. “…This is much different, and because people are angry… they’re just mad that a man was assassinated, extra-judicially murdered.” 

Jennifer Gonzalez, communications coordinator for the Green Bay Police Department, said that “today’s demonstration, like others held in our community, was calm and peaceful, with no significant incidents.”

Protests also occurred elsewhere in Wisconsin, including in Milwaukee, Madison, Oshkosh and Superior.

State Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D-Green Bay) said in a statement that “it is not surprising that Alex was a nurse with roots in Green Bay, a place where we believe in taking care of each other and respecting human dignity.”

“We must come together to demand accountability, because hate cannot win,” Rivera-Wagner said. 

In a statement Saturday, Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich said “another American citizen is dead as the result of the federal government’s occupation of an American city, and the victim, Alex Pretti, was a graduate of a Green Bay high school.” 

“Without knowing all the facts of the case, we can say with certainty that a full, transparent, and independent investigation must be conducted,” Genrich said. “I mourn his tragic death with his friends and family, and join the chorus of Americans who are rightfully demanding the federal government change course and enforce immigration law in keeping with local, state and federal laws and the U.S. Constitution.”

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Marchers begin a walking and singing vigil outside All God's Children Church in Minneapolis on Jan. 17, 2026 | Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner

“A great American city is being invaded by its own federal government,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on Saturday, after Border Patrol agents shot and killed an ICU nurse from Green Bay, Alex Pretti, in broad daylight while restraining him on the ground outside a doughnut shop.

In this dizzying new era of state terror, citizens and community leaders alike are trying to figure out what to do. What power do we have to face down a violent, repressive government targeting civilians in an operation aimed not at protecting public safety but at disrupting and destroying civil society? 

At a press conference with local media last week, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan promised to fight against a Minneapolis-like surge in Wisconsin, drawing a lot of probing follow-up questions from reporters. Pocan voted against $64 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security that passed the House and is now, belatedly, facing difficulties in the Senate. He said he would work with local law enforcement, support lawsuits filed by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and other state AGs against aggressive ICE deployments, and encourage peaceful protestors marching in inflatable dinosaur costumes. 

But the question of how to fight back is a tough one.

The federal government has created a massive paramilitary organization that is systematically terrorizing Democratic-led Midwestern cities. The 3,000 immigration agents in Minneapolis far outnumber the local police force there. We have never seen anything quite like this.

Minnesota elected officials seem to be struggling with the question of how to resist and how to defend their citizens. Along with strong language about the damage the federal crackdown is doing to the community, Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz repeatedly admonished protesters to remain peaceful, then deployed the Minnesota National Guard to block people from visiting a memorial at the site of Pretti’s death. Bringing in local and state law enforcement and the Guard to police protesters seems to buttress the Trump administration’s false claims that Minnesotans are the ones causing the violence, and that more armed men policing civilian neighborhoods will increase public safety. In reality, federal agents are the ones who are acting violently, not Minneapolis residents, and it’s not clear that local and state police are doing anything to protect the public from this threat.

The fact is, it’s hard to figure out what to do.

In Madison, on Saturday night more than 100 of my neighbors packed the James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Church for a potluck and discussion of nonviolent action, looking for answers to the terrible questions raised by the shooting death of yet another civilian in Minneapolis. 

How do we prepare for the possibility of an onslaught of armed federal agents into our own communities, busting down doors without warrants, dragging people out of their homes and firing on the neighbors who try to protect them? What power do we have to turn back the transformation of our country from democracy to authoritarian regime? 

The Madison event, planned before Pretti was killed, was organized by a coalition of dozens of peace and social justice groups under the umbrella Building Unity for Nonviolent Action. Speakers, including my friend John Nichols of The Nation magazine and Dane County Judge and Rev. Everett Mitchell, talked about the history of peaceful resistance in the U.S. The group showed part of the documentary “A Force More Powerful” about transformative nonviolent resistance struggles in India, the segregated American South, South Africa, Denmark and Chile. 

It was restorative to gather in person, take a break from isolation, helpless rage and doomscrolling and to spend some time contemplating the heroism of the Civil Rights movement activists who faced down hatred and violence with astounding courage and faith — despite all evidence to the contrary — in the fundamental decency of other people.

The difference between the Civil Rights era and today — and even the difference between the Black Lives Matter movement against police violence of a few years ago and today — is that the federal government can no longer be counted on to enforce civil rights, due process and justice. We are in a new era. “Those protections are gone,” Rev. Mitchell told the crowd. “So the only thing that you have available to you is each other.”

That bracing realization has spurred a proliferation of nonviolent resistance trainings in Minnesota and in other states, including Wisconsin.

One salutary side effect is that peaceful gatherings that bring out our capacity for love, mutual aid and connection help us avoid drowning in anger and despair.

Last weekend we drove to Minneapolis to visit our daughter who is, alarmingly, living in the middle of the chaos there. On our way to take her out for lunch we came upon a massive group of people holding a walking vigil in the neighborhood near where Renee Good was shot. About 600 Minnesotans were walking the streets singing, “You are not alone” and “Hold on, here comes the dawn,” as immigrant children and their parents peered out the windows of locked houses, waving. It was an unexpected moment of grace. A glimpse of the humanity and caring that are still possible. We need to hold onto that vision.

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Dant'e Cottingham , who was formerly incarcerated, brings his perspective on the criminal justice system to students in a UW Law School class. | Photo courtesy UW Law School

A new class at the University of Wisconsin Law School aims to teach students about the perspectives of different people who are part of the criminal justice system, including those who are incarcerated. 

Dant’e Cottingham, one of the course instructors, was himself once locked up inside Wisconsin’s prison system. He said that according to stigma, he’s not supposed to be in the classroom.

“So I’m aware of that, and I carry that,” Cottingham said. “That’s important to me, because I want to make sure that the city, the state, the country knows that we are a lot more than our worst mistake.”

Instructing the class along with Cottingham is Adam Stevenson, a clinical professor and director of the Frank J. Remington Center, which houses the law school’s prison-based clinics as well as the public defender and prosecution externships. While Cottingham has the experience of being incarcerated in the prison system, Stevenson brings to the course the legal expertise of a law professor, and one who has worked with a program focused on legal assistance to incarcerated people. 

The Wednesday class, which has 19 students enrolled this semester,  counts for two credits. It’s titled “Criminal Justice System: A Lived Experience Perspective.” The class, examining how theory, policy and practice line up with reality — or diverge from it, according to the syllabus, may continue in the future depending on how this semester goes. 

In 1996, Cottingham was convicted of being party to a crime for first-degree intentional homicide for an offense that occurred when he was 17. While incarcerated, Cottingham applied to UW Madison’s program for legal assistance for incarcerated people and was assigned two law students who worked to help him win his release, he said. He was paroled in 2022. 

Cottingham served as interim associate director of the group Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing, and spoke publicly about Green Bay Correctional Institution, where he spent some of his imprisonment, and which has been the subject of criticism for inhumane conditions and calls to close the facility. Now 47, Cottingham is the reentry and outreach support specialist for the Remington Center. He said he helps men and women who are transitioning from incarceration.  

“I sit with people, build a rapport, get some insight and understanding to what their needs are,” Cottingham said. A person’s needs might involve housing, employment or medical care. 

Cottingham said that when he gave presentations in classes in the past,  students engaged with his description of his own experience, and he saw a need for the course he’s teaching now.

The experience of re-entering society after prison is one topic on the course schedule Cottingham shared with the Examiner. The arrest process, the trial process, sentencing, systemic inequality in criminal justice, and incarceration, and advocacy for reform and future directions are among the other course topics.

Guest speakers in the class range from Wisconsin Department of Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy, to Wood County District Attorney Jonathan Barnett, to Sharmain Harris, whose book “Rising Above the Odds: My Journey from Pain and Prison to Power and Purpose” is one of the required materials for the course. Requirements include book reports that analyze autobiographies of people who have experienced incarceration. 

Jini Jasti, a spokesperson for University of Wisconsin Law School, said UW Law’s motto is “Law in Action.” She said the school does not only teach the law on the books but also encourages students to see how it works from different perspectives, such as those of prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims, defendants and prisoners.  

“This unique class complements our other offerings, allowing students to hear about our trial, appellate and prison systems from someone who’s lived it,” Jasti said in a statement. 

State Public Defender Jennifer Bias and Robert Taliaferro, who was formerly incarcerated, visited the class on Wednesday. 

Bringing in these different perspectives helps  “tease out topics that we should be discussing when we’re talking about what the law is, how the law should operate etc.,” Stevenson said in a Jan. 16 interview with the Wisconsin Examiner. “One person’s perspective is definitely great in doing that, but having multiple perspectives and the potential disagreement, or the clash, if you will, can also give rise to some really rich conversation.”  

Stevenson said students will be graduating and working with clients as attorneys, and understanding the perspectives of people in the criminal justice system is important. 

Lara Hendrix, a third year law student, is planning to be a public defender after graduation. She said she thought the class would be valuable for her future career. 

Hendrix hopes that eventually people who don’t plan to practice criminal law take the class. 

“These are real people with families, and people that love them, and other people that are affected,” Hendrix said, “and that needs so much more attention than it gets.”

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